A couple of years ago, we realized that a lot of Drupal beginners were asking us for simple, good-looking Drupal themes.
These beginners didn't want sub-themes, base themes, frameworks or complicated installs. So that meant no Omega, Zen, Fusion or Bootstrap. These beginners just wanted a theme that could be installed easily and didn't look embarrassing. That lead to "Recommended Themes for Drupal Beginners", one of the most popular posts on this blog.
Now that Drupal 8 is here, we've started to hear the same question: "What theme should beginners use to create their first site?"
Only 86 themes are ready for Drupal 8 currently, so we will make sure to update this list as time goes on. If you know of any more, please let us know in the comments.
Theme #1. Zircon
- Theme link
- Theme demo
- Installation guide (with sample data)
By a large distance, Zircon is the most complete and professional-looking beginner theme. The details of theme are nicely done and there are no areas that obviously need more work. For this reason, Zircon is the theme we chose to use in our Drupal 8 Beginner class.
Here's the block region layout for Zircon:
Theme #2. Integrity
Integrity is a solid theme that uses Bootstrap 3 and has a reasonable design. However, there are some flaws in the design, including the main menu which looks incomplete. It would need some work to make it ready for use on a real site.
Here's the block region layout for Integrity:
Theme #3. Paxton
Paxton is from the same designers as Integrity. Again, it's a reasonably designed Bootstrap 3 theme that needs some tidying-up, especially with the main menu. I can imagine using this for a test site, but not a real project.
Here's the block region layout for Paxton:
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